


Christmas Comes

by kijikun



Series: The Cage [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Hell, M/M, Multi, Romance, The Cage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-19
Updated: 2011-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-27 13:48:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kijikun/pseuds/kijikun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo's decided it's time for Christmas. Michael and Lucifer still have thing to work out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jena Bartley (jenab)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/gifts).



Jo has no way of telling the date, but she’s decided. It’s time for Christmas. Maybe it’s the snow falling on the little cottage or the pine trees she’s started to see appear in what had been the waste land.

Maybe it’s how Michael and Lucifer dance around each other in the small cottage.

They speak very little to each other and bristle every time their wings touch in the kitchen. Jo though sees them looking at each other thoughtfully at times, wistfully at others.

Maybe that’s why she decides it time for Christmas.

“I’m going to get a tree,” she tells Lucifer one morning as they lie curled together. His wings blanket her and he’s pressing kisses again her shoulder.

“A tree?” he asks questioningly.

She nods and wiggles her toes. “For Christmas.”

Lucifer’s quiet. “You wish to have Christmas?”

Jo turns in his arms. “Yes, I think it’s time,” she tells him. She’s not sure how to explain it to him, this _feeling_. “With the snow falling and the trees.”

He hums softly as his wing shifts over her. “Christmas,” he repeats almost wonderingly.

“Do you think it be wrong to cut down a tree?” she asks. “I could also just decorate one where it’s growing.”

Lucifer’s fingers trace down her spine and come to a rest where wings would have been on her. “They were made for you,” he says carefully. “So what you wish to do with them is your choice.”

Jo laughs despite his solemn tone. “You make it sound so serious.” She doesn’t want seriousness. She wants songs and laughter. She wants a kitchen that smells of cookies and a tree in the corner of the small sitting room.

She stretches again and slides out from under his wings. “I’ll cut one down after I finish my chores.”

He sits up as well and wraps his arms around you. “I’d like to help you.” He helps with the chores now, both him and Michael do. Her chores are done so much earlier now leaving her time to do more complicated cooking and even try her hand a knitting. “With the tree.”

“Thank you,” she tells him, leaning back into his strong warm arms. The room is chilly despite the fire.

“It is my pleasure.” He nuzzles the side of her neck affectionately.

“Mhmm, stop tempting me to get back into bed with you,” she admonishes him without much bite.

Lucifer laughs, bright and warm. “I am the great tempter.”

“Tempting me to put off going out into the cold isn’t much of a feat,” she teases, squirming out of his arms.

He gives her a look that’s as close to a pout as she can imagine him doing. “I’ll start on chopping up more wood.”

“I should have breakfast ready by the time your done,” she tells him. “Tell Michael is you see him.”

Lucifer wings bristle. “I do not know why he’s welcome in this house.”

Jo regards him for a moment and shakes her head. “You know.”

His shoulder’s slump. “Yes.”

“You two need to decide if you hate each other more than you love each other or the other way around,” Jo points out as she pulls on her clothes.

The kitchen is warm when Jo enters it, Michael’s already stoked the fire. “Oatmeal this morning I think,” she tells the dog.

He barks and wags his tail from his place by the wood stove. Jo laughs. “Okay, okay, I’ll feed your first.” She gets out some of the left over stew from the night before and puts it on the stove to warm it. “Beef stew meet your approval?”

He barks again.

The old fashioned fridge - more of an icebox - still provides what meat she needs out side of fish they caught in the stream. Just as the pantry provides other staples and not so staples she goes looking for.

“Breakfast, then start on the stew for dinner, then cookies,” Jo says aloud. “Then I’ll chop down the tree. I’ll think of something to decorate it with. Maybe popcorn.”

“A tree? To decorate?” Michael asks coming inside after shaking the snow from his wings.

“Good morning, Michael,” Jo says, getting out the oatmeal. “Where’d you sleep last night? You weren’t in the sitting room.”

Michael folds his wings at his back and puts the fish he caught in the sink. “I slept in the shed.”

“Michael, it snowed last night!” Jo protests.

“I cannot freeze,” Michael points out.

“That’s hardly the point,” she sighs. “Sleep inside tonight will you?”

Michael inclines his head slightly, but doesn’t outright agree. “You mentioned a tree?”

Jo nods, busying herself with making breakfast. “For Christmas. I think it’s about time we had one.”

There silence.

Jo turns her head to look at him. His eyes are wide and he looks shocked. “Christmas?” he says finally.

She nods. “It feels about the right time to have one. Can’t have Christmas without a tree. Well, I guess you can, but it’d feel weird to me.”

Michael just stares at her for an uncomfortable length of time. Then Lucifer comes in. He glares at the back of Michael’s wings and pushes him out of the way with his own wings to put the wood down in the box.

“Joanna, wishes to have Christmas,” Michael says.

Lucifer pauses at Jo’s side and kisses her. Jo’s almost annoyed because it feels like he’s making a point.

“I’m going to help her with the tree later,” Lucifer says. “If she wishes to have Christmas, we’ll have Christmas.”

Michael glares at the both then practically stomps out into the snow.

“I guess he doesn’t like Christmas,” Jo ventures.

Lucifer shakes his head. “I believe he likes it too much. It reminds him of where he is.”

Jo stops stirring for a moment. “Oh. Maybe we shouldn’t --”

“No,” Lucifer says firmly. “He’ll ‘get over it’ as you say.”

“I hope so,” Jo sighs. She wants Christmas to be happy after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucifer heads out into the snow with Jo later that day to cut down a tree. The house smells of cookies and she’s already made a few popcorn garlands.

“I suppose we can use candles on the tree somehow,” Jo says. “It’s odd not having ornaments, but I don’t think the house considers those essentials to living.”

Lucifer smiles, his fingers wrapped around hers. “Are chocolate chips considered essential to living?”

Jo laughs. “No, not really. I’ll check the shed, odd things turn up in there.”

“I will think of something if there is nothing there. Your tree must be decorated,” Lucifer says seriously.

She squeezes his hand. “It won’t be the end of the -- it won’t be that big of a deal if the tree only has popcorn garland.”

Lucifer frown in that way he does when he thinks he’s not giving her the very best of something. “I’ll manage something,” he promises her.

She smiles and some how knows he’ll try. Sometimes she wonders just how much control he has over the cage. It’s odd to think of it as the cage now. It doesn’t feel like a prison.

It feels like home.

Michael says she should be in Heaven. He frowns when he says it and gets little lines on his brow. She knows he dislikes that she’s been put here and that he doesn’t know why bothers him even more. Lucifer just accepts it.

Jo’s glad she’s not in Heaven. From what she’s heard from Michael, she’d be bored there. The same happy memories over and over? No thanks, she’d rather make new ones.

She _likes_ the little life she’s carved for herself here. Sure, she misses hunting, but she stays busy. Plus, it’s a life _she’s_ made, not one handed to her or a life that’s some how of making a dead man proud. She liked hunting, she was proud of what she did, but this life now is just as hard won.

“Which tree should we cut?” Lucifer asks.

“Jo presses her lips together and looks out across the field of trees. She’s not sure. They all look nice.

“You pick,” she tells him.

Lucifer lets go of her hand to approach one tree. He runs his fingers through the needles, then moves to anther tree. He does this several times before standing back. “This one,” he declares.

“I can cut it,” Jo says, when he hefts the axe.

Silently, he hands it over.

Jo chops down the tree. Maybe Lucifer could have done it faster, but she wants to do the work.

Together they drag the tree back to the house.

“We’ll put it in the sitting room,” Jo says, brushing her hands on her jeans. “It’ll have the most room.”

Lucifer nods and helps her get the tree inside. They put it up in the corner. Jo thinks the house feels a little brighter for it.

“I’ll make ornaments from paper if nothing else,” she says, admiring the tree Lucifer picked.

Lucifer smiles and kisses her forehead. “I seem to recall something about mistletoe. I’m going to find some.”

Jo laughs at his sudden change of subject. “You can kiss me whenever you like.”

Lucifer kisses her then as if to confirm it. “Mistletoe is part of Christmas, is it not?” he asks when they break apart.

Jo laughs again. “It is,” she agrees, then draws a finger along the edge of his feathers.

He shivers and holds her a bit closer. Then he kisses her again. A little deeper, a little more passionately.

“I should work on dinner,” Jo half protests when she comes up for air.

Lucifer smiles and nudges her with his wing. “We could have a nap,” he suggests wickedly.

“Mhmm,” Jo hums. It’s tempting.

He encircles her with one wing and runs his fingers down her rip cage. “Joanna,” he practically purrs. “Come to bed with me.”

Jo gasps softly and leans into his touch.

“Ahem,” Michael says from the front doorway.

Lucifer almost hisses. Jo puts a hand on his chest.

“Forgive me,” Michael says in put out tone. “I see I’m interrupting.”

He quickly leaves without making eye contact with either of them.

Jo sighs. “I wish you two would --”

“Kiss and make up?” Lucifer finishes for her.

She smacks him lightly. “Figure things out,” she sighs. “I should work on dinner.”

Lucifer steps back from her. “Of course. I have mistletoe to find.”

Jo curls her fingers around some of his feather. “I love you.”

He bows his head towards her. “And I love you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner is a quiet affair. Michael and Lucifer barely look at each other.

Michael’s eyes keep going to the mistletoe hanging in the doorway to the sitting room, then to Jo, but they stay pointedly away from Lucifer.

“I’m going to make some ornaments for the tree,” she tells them. “I think I remember a play dough recipe from when I was a kid. That should work along with the cookie cutters. Not sure about lights for the tree though.”

“Candles?” Michael suggests.

“They would burn the tree,” Lucifer counters.

Jo sighs, wishing they wouldn’t fight. “I’ll think of something.”

They both help clean up the dishes. Lucifer touches her whenever he can, while Michael carefully tries not to even brush either of them with his wings. Jo is starting to get pretty sick of this.

“Tomorrow you two can help me make the ornaments,” she says when everything is cleaned up.

“We don’t need his help,” Lucifer says primly.

Michael all but crosses his arms and stomps his foot. “It isn’t right to have Christmas here.”

Jo puts her hands on her hips. “Why?” she demands.

“This is the cage. This is punishment. Celebration isn’t punishment,” Michael protests.

Lucifer snorts. “You see, this is why we don’t need his help.”

“I want him to help us because Christmas is about family,” Jo snaps, fed up. “If you two would stop being bound and determined to hate each other you’d remember you love each other.” She throws the towel she was using to dry dishes on the table.

“Jo,” Lucifer says softly.

“No, I’m sick and tired of you two either being at each other’s throats or barely looking at each other. It’s got to stop. I can’t take it,” Jo tells them both and suddenly she feels like she’s going to cry. “What’s the point in having Christmas at all if you two can’t even be civil about making ornaments with me!”

The dog barks in agreement.

With that she storms out of the kitchen and into the bathroom.

A bath. That’s what she needs a long hot bath.

***

Jo comes out of the bath feeling much better. She feels a little bad for yelling at them, but, hey, she was frustrated. She guesses she should be happy they aren’t tearing each other apart anymore. Aren’t literally at each others throats.

Still it would be nice if they could find a balance. She feels like they’re walking on the edge of something big, but --

She sighs and shuffles into the kitchen in her slipper intent on a glass of milk and cookies before bed.

Jo gasps softly.

There standing the doorway between the sitting room and the kitchen. There standing under the mistletoe are Michael and Lucifer.

Kissing.

Michael has Lucifer’s face framed in his hands. Their wings are touching.

Jo grabs the back of a chair to steady herself. Jealously, hope, fear, affection rolls around inside her chest.

They don’t seem to notice her and she starts to move from the kitchen. To leave them alone. Okay, to be honest she wants to flee into the bedroom and have a good cry about what she might be losing.

“Joanna,” Lucifer says softly.

Jo stops in the doorway and looks back at them.

Lucifer has his hand out stretched towards her, eyes hopeful. Michael looks -- almost happy. “Joanna, please,” Michael adds just as softly.

She wants to say no. That she can’t handle this, but maybe this is where they were headed all along. Step by step she crosses the room until she reaches them.

Carefully, as if Lucifer’s touch might burn her she slides her hand into his. He pulls her close and encircles her in a wing. When he kisses her, it’s almost like the first time.

He feels like his burning, lips hot against hers. Jo trembles and lets her hand rest of his wing to make him tremble in return.

Michael fingers brush across the back of her neck. When she separates from Lucifer, Michael leans over her. “Joanna,” he whispers, fingers brushing down her throat.

She nods, her heart pounding loudly in her ears.

Michael kisses her.

It’s like kissing snow. A different sort of burn.

Fire and ice she realizes.

Their wings surround her, careful fingers touch her skin.

When she breaks apart from Michael for air, she looks at Lucifer questioningly. “We aren’t whole without you,” he says softly.

Jo wets her lips. “What brought all this one?” she asks.

“We upset you,” Michael answers. “We -- I didn’t realize how much we upset you with our fighting.”

“So all I had to do was throw a fit for you to kiss and make up?” Jo asks incredulously.

Lucifer shakes his head. “Come see the tree.”

That’s not much of an answer, but she let’s Lucifer take her hand and lead her into the sitting room.

The tree is a glow with lights. Not from a string of eclectic lights or from candles, but from little balls of pure light sitting on the tip of different branches.

“We had to work together to manifest our grace this way,” Lucifer explains.

“It’s beautiful,” Jo says softly. “You did this for me?”

“You’re beautiful,” Michael says reverently. “I don’t think you understand how brightly your soul burns here.”

“We didn’t see how our hatred was muting your soul.” Lucifer presses a kiss to the back of Jo’s hand. “You were worth overcoming hatred for.”

Jo tightens her fingers around Lucifer’s hand and then carefully offers her hand to Michael. After a moment he takes her.

She knows this won’t fix things for good. That there are still edges. That Lucifer and Michael are still fire and ice.

This is a start though. “We’ll make ornaments tomorrow,” she says softly and holds on tight.

It’s a start.


End file.
